From the Daily Tribune (Jan 11):
MILF waffles on disarmament
Decommissioning set next month "symbolic" -- MILF
The
decommissioning process of firearms would be at best symbolical when it is held
next month as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) cited four phases that
should be held in parallel with eight processes or “tracks” for the disarmament
of its troops under a peace pact with the government.
MILF peace panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said decommissioning of firearms “has
to be parallel and commensurate to the implementation of other agreements.”
Iqbal described the event to be held next month which the government billed as
the start of the decommissioning of the firearms of the MILF would merely be
“symbolic” since the proces is in reality not that simple but a very
“sentimental, sensitive and emotional” act.
Iqbal stressed that the decommissioning process should never be equated to
surrender nor should there be “a destruction of weapons, but that a third-party
monitor, called the International Decommissioning Body (IDB), would be
responsible for the storage of said weapons.”
The symbolic decommissioning was initially set last December but “it has to
relate to other tracks in Phase 1” of the implementation schedule, Iqbal added.
A supposed matrix detailing the program for normalization in the Bangsamoro has
been attached to the annex on normalization signed among members of the
government and MILF peace panels last
Jan. 25, 2014 at Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Iqbal said the matrix shows four phases of implementation with eight dimensions
or tracks, including decommissioning, that have to be parallel and commensurate
to each other.
“The rest are transitional components of normalization, socio-economic
programs, confidence-building measures, redeployment of AFP, policing,
disbandment of private armies and other armed groups, transitional justice and
reconciliation,” he added.
Iqbal said he had written Ambassador Haydar Berk of Turkey, who heads the IDB, about
the number of MILF weapons and combatants that would be decommissioned.
The IDB is made up of Norway,
Turkey and Brunei and four
other local experts jointly nominated by the parties.
It is expected to meet in Manila
this month.
Iqbal added that delaying the decommissioning process is the unfinished
implementing guidelines of the terms of reference of the IDB.
Since the IDB was constituted last September only, its members “cannot put up
themselves yet in the proper way to move forward,” Iqbal said.
“The MILF is committed to decommission its weapons and forces and put them
beyond use, but it is in exchange for something for our people. That something
is in a good (Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL),” the MILF, meanwhile, said in its
website luwaran.com.
“If there is no reason to bear arms and that all our limbs and properties are
safe, who will then be in need of these weapons?,” it stated.
The Palace, meanwhile, said it hopes to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law within
the administration’s timetable in the first quarter of this year.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, the chairman of the Senate committee on
constitutional amendments and revision of codes, said she will raise the
legality issues of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Santiago, has set the hearings for Jan. 26
and Feb. 2.
Deputy presidential spokesmann Abigail Valte, in a radio interview, said she
hopes the constitutionality issues on the BBL will be settled in Congress.
“In the beginning, I understand that Senator Defensor-Santiago has always been
of the position that there are certain things that she believes — that she has
a contrary opinion,” Valte said.
“Hopefully, these questions or positions can be the subject of discussions
between her and other lawmakers, as the law is discussed in Congress,” she
added.
Asked if she thinks the the law could be passed within the administration’s
time frame, the Palace official said they have not lost their optimism for its
passage.
“We remain hopeful. We understand that there are a number of issues that need
to be thoroughly discussed by lawmakers when this reaches the floor,” she said.
“But we remain hopeful that it will make the intended timetable.”
Santiago said
she wanted to hear the views of those who forged the agreement. She noted the
peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) also sought to
establish a substate that would exercise certain sovereign powers otherwise
reserved for the central government.
Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who conducted public hearings on the draft law in
parts of Mindanao as chair of the local
government committee, agreed that the issue of substate was the “main
constitutional question.”
http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/milf-waffles-on-disarmament
